When news of the deal made between President-elect Donald Trump and Carrier Corp. to save nearly 1,000 jobs reached the White House, the response was to diminish the significance of the agreement.

During his press briefing Wednesday, White House Press Secretary Josh Earnest was asked to comment on the announcement.

Earnest replied, “The early indications are that this is good news, and obviously we’d welcome that good news,” Earnest replied. “I know that the president-elect has indicated that he deserves credit for that announcement.”

“I guess what I would observe is that if he is successful in doing that 804 more times, then he will meet the record of manufacturing jobs that were created in the United States while President Obama was in office,” Earnest said. “There were 805,000 manufacturing jobs that weren’t just protected or saved, but actually created while President Obama was in office. So President Obama has set a high standard.”

He continued, “As we go to protecting jobs, there are more than a million jobs in the industrial Midwest that were saved when President Obama made the decision to rescue the American auto industry.”

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On his radio show Wednesday, conservative talk show host Rush Limbaugh disputed the claim that Obama “rescued” the auto industry.

Trump was scheduled to appear in Indianapolis Thursday, along with Vice President-elect Mike Pence, to formally announce the agreement with Carrier.

The deal was called a “huge win” by Republican National Committee Communications Director Sean Spicer, as well as a “perfect example of the kind of leadership the Trump administration is going to provide when it comes to fighting for the American workers.”

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When the employees of Carrier learned of the news, they were excited and thankful to Trump for saving their jobs.

Carrier employee Robin Maynard appeared on Fox News’ Fox and Friends to personally thank Trump for “sticking to your word and going to bat for all of us at Carrier and keeping our jobs here.”

In an article for The Washington Post published Thursday, former Democratic presidential candidate and Vermont Sen. Bernie Sanders criticized the deal.

Sanders wrote, “Trump has endangered the jobs of workers who were previously safe in the United States. Why? Because he has signaled to every corporation in America that they can threaten to offshore jobs in exchange for business-friendly tax benefits and incentives.”

He also expressed his concern that as a result of the tax benefits and incentives, “Even corporations that weren’t thinking of offshoring jobs will most probably be re-evaluating their stance this morning.”